Questions about Central Saint Martins... and the whole 'moving to London' thing

Hey everyone, let me say first, this community is awesome!! I have been stressing out for a few weeks after I decided I wanted to go back to school in the UK and this place (that I haplessly stumbled onto) has quieted so many of my concerns.

Soooooo, I graduated about 2 years ago with a degree in 'Digital Media', a fancy term for computer animation.  Right now I am looking at CSM's MA in character animation.  Just how prestigious is this school? I saw a reference to the postgraduate program having something like 30 students, so I am assuming not that many international students... but I could be wrong there.

I am, at this moment, mostly concerned with the financials, can anyone tell me roughly with tuition, course fees, and living expenses about what I would be looking at, and if this is something that the Stafford and GradPLUS could cover?

One more off the wall question.  I have an 80lbs German Shepherd... is it reasonable to think that I would be able to bring him with me, or am I gonna have to break some bad news to my parents?

I would appreciate and and all advice on anything regardless of it it has to do with my questions!! haha!

Just how prestigious is this school? I saw a reference to the postgraduate program having something like 30 students, so I am assuming not that many international students... but I could be wrong there.

It's one of the most prestigious in its fields.

can anyone tell me roughly with tuition, course fees, and living expenses about what I would be looking at, and if this is something that the Stafford and GradPLUS could cover?

Best check directly with CSM.  They can tell you extactly what fees are, plus specific costs of studying that course.  For living costs see http://www.ukstudentlife.com/Prepare/Cost.htm

I have an 80lbs German Shepherd... is it reasonable to think that I would be able to bring him with me?

See http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-pets/pets/travel/index.htm

CSM is an outstanding school. I can't speak to the ratio of international students to British, but they admissions people should be able to tell you that.

awesome, thanks for the help!

Another question that it just for curiosity's sake... has anyone ever looked into cost differences for staying domestic and paying international rates for the UK tuition and fees?   It seem like in some cases tuition for US schools are within the same price range as the international costs for schools in the UK.  This is very possibly just the schools that I am looking at, but has anyone else experienced this before.... or are there things that I am not taking into account when looking at the total cost of an international education?

It's just going to depend upon the school to a large degree and where you live. I know that moving to the UK for me was almost the same cost, if not LESS, than my second choice school which was in NYC. I was also looking at art and design programs.

It really depends on the school and the type of program you're looking to do, but for me it was cheaper to get my master's internationally.  My field is Art History so obviously it's going to be less intense and less expensive than something like Engineering or Medical School. My course was 1 year (pretty standard in the UK for Liberal Arts type stuff) as opposed to the 2 year standard in the US, so even though my tuition was equal to about $15,000 I only had to pay it for one year.  $15,000 would be cheap in the US anyway!

If you factor in living costs, then I lived off about another $15,000 for the year bringing my total to $30,000 to get my master's.  In the US I would have probably had to pay that just for my tuition and another $10,000 or so per year to live off of if I was going to live in the same poor student manner that I lived during undergrad.

Late on this but agree that Central Saint Martins reputation is outstanding in the art and design field.

I think you'd need to compare cost of living and fees between your UK and US choices to determine your answer.

Good luck!